28: Hermia’s Trial
They delved deeper into the wood. Pine and birch trees mingled with young oaks, all growing in size as stature as they walked further along the trodden path, the only break in a sea of wild flowers and shrubs. When the group emerged into a green clearing, Ceres skipped forward and fell into a pool of grass with her arms outstretched, emerging with daisies cupped in her hands.
“Don’t mind her,” said Hermia, as Ceres began to plait the flowers into a chain. She then looked Phantasia up and down. “You want to change into your PE kit? We built a changing room…”
“Oh, I’ll be fine,” said Phantasia. She tugged on her brown waistcoat. “I’ve gotten comfortable. I’m sure it won’t make much difference what I’m wearing!”
Hermia looked bemused, but Korrigan was giggling. “You’re strange,” she said, “I like that! Hermia takes this whole thing really seriously! Wear what you’re comfortable in, that’s what I say!”
Hermia shrugged, but there was a half-smile on her face as she turned away. “Phantasia, if you’d follow me,” she said, “I’ll take you to the observation deck and show you the course,”
Hermia led her to a thick pine tree. Some four or five metres off the ground, a circular platform had been built around the trunk, supported by beams and cables. Hermia scrambled up a rope ladder hanging from the platform’s edge and waited for Phantasia to do the same. She tugged at the rigging – what strange contraptions these humans devised! – and then pulled herself up.
“Your feet barely touched the rungs!” said a flabbergasted Hermia once Phantasia was standing next to her, “And you’re not even out of breath?”
“I…lived in a forest once,” she replied, putting on her best innocent smile. It wasn’t a lie – she’d spent some time in the Wind Queendom after all. Faeries didn’t need strange climbing devices though.
“Well good for you,” said Hermia, “Maybe you’ll be prepared for this,” – she swept her hand across the forest panorama – “We’ll start down there,” she said, pointing to some white lines painted on the dirt near the base of the tree, “We work through the course in a clockwise direction, but it’s signposted in case you get confused. You need to pass all ten obstacles to qualify.” She motioned towards the scrambling form of Horatio, fighting his way through foliage while grasping a collection of primary-coloured tags in one hand, “Each obstacle has a tag – yellow for me, green for Korrigan, blue for you. Collect all ten or else you’ll fail to qualify. The start line also marks the end of the course, and is where Ceres will be waiting to record your time. Horatio will be keeping track of the race from up here to make sure there’s no cheating. Not that I’m suggesting you’d cheat, of course,”
She cleared her throat, then took a harness hanging from the truck and strapped herself in. “Zip-line,” she said, clicking belts into place, “It’d take too long to explain, so you’re better off taking the ladder back down,” With a flick of the wrist, she connected herself to an overhanging cable and then threw herself into the air. Phantasia watched as she accelerated towards a sand-stocked landing zone, where she landed with as much grace as a human could muster from such a stunt. Phantasia looked over the edge of the platform and pondered for a moment if she could get away with jumping – it was unlikely, though, so she clambered down the ladder. Hermia was soon back and performing a set of warm-ups by the starting line.
